Does anyone have a recommendation (or a warning) to share about a swim watch? I'm looking for something to help me count distance and/or strokes. I'm thinking about the Garmin Swim. I have the Garmin Forerunner (for running) and am pretty happy with it.
I've used Garmin 920XT a triathlon watch with pool mode like the Garmin Swim, Swimovate Poolmate 2, Misfit, and Fitbit Flex 2. You need to decide what you want to track and also plan for potentially outgrowing what you get. The Garmin, Swimovate and Flex 2 all work on the principal of counting laps based on your turns. The Garmin and Swimovate are about equal in accuracy. Swimovate is smaller on the wrist and much cheaper but lacks customizable display, is hard to read while swimming, and measures a lot fewer metrics. Garmin is much pricier, large on the wrist but is easy to read in the water, has customizable display, and gives way more info. I started with a Poolmate as a lap counter before I started Masters and learned about intervals, pace clock etc. I later switched to Garmin. I was happy with both devices for their respective purposes. (I also use my Garmin for triathlon and open water). My Poolmate is still working fine but has been passed on to a family member - I have outgrown it. My misfit was strictly an activity tracker. All it will record is how long you swam and how intensely. I do not recommend it as stated by another forum member because both the belt clip and the wrist strap are flawed. You will definitely lose your device. Mine kept falling out of the holder and was lost after about 3 or 4 months. I also do not recommend the Fitbit Flex 2 for swimming and frankly it is not even a very good step counter. I recently posted about it on another thread, but the short version is that it lacks a display, it only counts swimming sets longer than 10 minutes, has a poor app, and only a three day battery life. In summary both Garmin and Poolmate are quality devices at different price points and feature sets.
I've used Garmin 920XT a triathlon watch with pool mode like the Garmin Swim, Swimovate Poolmate 2, Misfit, and Fitbit Flex 2. You need to decide what you want to track and also plan for potentially outgrowing what you get. The Garmin, Swimovate and Flex 2 all work on the principal of counting laps based on your turns. The Garmin and Swimovate are about equal in accuracy. Swimovate is smaller on the wrist and much cheaper but lacks customizable display, is hard to read while swimming, and measures a lot fewer metrics. Garmin is much pricier, large on the wrist but is easy to read in the water, has customizable display, and gives way more info. I started with a Poolmate as a lap counter before I started Masters and learned about intervals, pace clock etc. I later switched to Garmin. I was happy with both devices for their respective purposes. (I also use my Garmin for triathlon and open water). My Poolmate is still working fine but has been passed on to a family member - I have outgrown it. My misfit was strictly an activity tracker. All it will record is how long you swam and how intensely. I do not recommend it as stated by another forum member because both the belt clip and the wrist strap are flawed. You will definitely lose your device. Mine kept falling out of the holder and was lost after about 3 or 4 months. I also do not recommend the Fitbit Flex 2 for swimming and frankly it is not even a very good step counter. I recently posted about it on another thread, but the short version is that it lacks a display, it only counts swimming sets longer than 10 minutes, has a poor app, and only a three day battery life. In summary both Garmin and Poolmate are quality devices at different price points and feature sets.
